 |
| Charles Steger |
Virginia Tech President Charles W. Steger has announced his
intention to step down as university president. The university's board of
visitors will assemble a search committee immediately.
Steger will remain as president until the search concludes and his replacement
begins work.
“When one is totally absorbed in doing what one loves, 14 years pass in a
nanosecond," said Steger. “These years have been the highlight of my
career in higher education, and it has been my privilege to serve as president
during a period in which we have strengthened our academic programs and
expanded our research and outreach programs.
“As a three-time graduate of this institution, Virginia Tech has afforded me
the tools for leadership and personal fulfillment. I have been doubly blessed
because I then had the opportunity to spend virtually my entire career in the
service of this great university,” said Steger.
“We sadly accept President Steger’s desire to step down as president,” said
Mike Quillen, rector of the Virginia Tech Board of Visitors. “He has had a long
and successful tenure but we understand his desire to ratchet back the
extraordinary commitment of a major university president. Charles has truly
been outstanding, visionary, and productive. I believe when history looks back
upon his tenure as president, he will be ranked among the best of Virginia
Tech’s strong leaders. He has advanced Virginia Tech’s position and our ability
to serve the commonwealth on many levels.”
Steger has spent virtually his entire career at Virginia Tech leading it from
one superlative to another. Since becoming president in 2000, the university
has increased it research portfolio by more than 300 percent, grown enrollment
from 27,869 to 31,087, increased graduate enrollment increased by 12 percent,
raised more than $1 billion in private funding, added more than 2.5 million
square feet of buildings, formed a school of biomedical engineering, created a
school of medicine, and joined the Atlantic Coast Conference.
Early in his tenure, Steger charted a course to bolster the research enterprise
and compete among the nation’s elite universities. He oversaw creation of
broad-based research institutes capable of garnering large-scale,
multi-disciplinary sponsored research grants. He made significant investments
in selected life science programs. University sponsored research moved from
$192 million in 2000 to more than $450 million today.
Over the course of his presidency, Virginia Tech has increasingly become a
first-choice school in the mid-Atlantic region for highly achieving students.
The average grade point average of incoming freshmen moved from 3.54 to 3.92
(on a 4.0 scale) and SAT average changed from 1173 to 1212 during his time at
the helm.
He adopted a business model that invested in seven large centralized research
institutes: Virginia Tech Transportation Institute; Institute for Critical
Technology and Applied Sciences; Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute;
Virginia Bioinformatics Institute; Fralin Life Sciences Institute; Institute
for Society, Culture and Environment; and the Institute for Creativity, Arts,
and Technology. The institute format allowed Virginia Tech to compete for and
win large-scale multidisciplinary contracts.
Steger partnered with Carilion Clinic to create the innovative Virginia Tech Carilion
School of Medicine and Research Institute forming the fifth medical school in Virginia.
The Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute has quickly garnered world-wide
attention for unique new approaches to neuroscience.
A hallmark of his administration was the realization of a 50-year dream for
Hokie fans – entry into the Atlantic Coast Conference in 2004. Football won
four conference titles in the first eight years of play.
Steger championed the arts investing in liberal arts and arts programming. He
was the driving force behind the new Center for the Arts scheduled to open this
fall.
Along with two other Virginia university presidents, he helped write
legislation giving greater operating autonomy to senior state universities.
Steger had a knack for fundraising. In 2011, the school completed a seven-year
campaign raising more than $1.1 billion. Earlier in 1998, under his leadership
as vice president for development and university relations, he led a fund
raising effort garnering $337 million.
Virginia Tech made history in 2003 when it built the “terascale” supercomputer,
System X. Using off-the-shelf Apple computers, System X was at the time
the fastest university computer in the world and third fastest of any computer
– business, government, or academic.
